Skalsky test results reveal use of alcohol, no drugs UMBC player's death after party still studied

January 12, 1996|By Jay Apperson | Jay Apperson,SUN STAFF

UMBC basketball player Matt Skalsky had been drinking but had not been using drugs before he died after a New Year's Eve party in Montgomery County, police said yesterday.

As officials from the state medical examiner's office continued to search for the cause of the 19-year-old honor student's death, Montgomery County police said post-autopsy toxicology tests showed Skalsky had a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent, the legal standard for impairment. The tests showed no traces of drugs, said Ann Evans, a police spokeswoman.

She said investigators are awaiting the results of microscopic examinations of heart and brain tissue that may provide clues on what caused the teen-ager's death. No charges have been filed in the case.

Dr. Theodore M. King, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, said, "We are still working on the case." He declined to comment further.

Skalsky, a computer studies major from East Lansing, Mich., died early on New Year's Day.

Police said he was attending a party at a house in Darnestown when he became involved in a shoving match with another person. After he fell and injured his head outside the house, emergency medical workers took him to a Rockville hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Medical examiners determined that the teen-ager did not die from the head wound he suffered at the party, police said last week.

Skalsky, who had earned a perfect 4.0 grade-point average in the most recent semester, was buried Saturday in East Lansing. That night, a moment of silence was observed before UMBC's first game since his death.